Zoopla TV ad

The 3D printed homes featured in Zoopla's latest TV commercial.

If award-winning TV drama Mad Men is anything to go by, the pitches from advertising agency to client can be tense, high pressure, high stake situations. They rely on the understandably fussy client to accept their agency’s creative vision, originality, and cooperation with the desired theme or message. But even with all those aspects satisfying the client, the concept still needs to be practical.

When Zoopla, a UK property website, teamed up with Riff Raff Films and creative agency, 101, they were working against a strict timeframe, but thanks to 3D printing they were able to meet the deadline in under one week.

The advert focuses on a cast of crabs in the market for a new home, and in their search for the perfect dwelling the crustaceans make reference to Zoopla. Homes in this make-believe conception of crab life are miniature and attached to shells. The shells and homes were printed with Stratasys’ ObJet Connex 3multi-material, multi-colour 3D printing technology.

Before that, shells of the Costa Rican beach the ad was shot on were scanned, and then Artem, a special effects company, was brought in to oversee the design. The design of the shells needed to be as accurate as possible, and since real crabs were to be used, must have been comfortable and not cause any harm to the amphibious creatures.

×

“From the beginning, I knew this was a job for 3D printing. It would have been impossible to achieve the level of realism required with conventional, hand model-making,” Simon Tayler, Owner, Creative Director and Designer at Artem Ltd. “We were keen to do all we could to ensure that these shells weren’t rejected and would not harm the crabs.

“With Stratasys’ multi-colour, multi-material 3D printing, we were able to mirror every cure, bump and nook of a shell’s natural shape, including the interior.”

The shells were printed in Digital ABS material and in a short lead time, with the machines running around the clock and the 20 shells being printed in under a week. The resulting products were just as impressive as the time it took to create them, according to Tayler.

“With 3D printing, we could work with minute details like individual tiles or roof or brick texture that was only 30mm across without losing any element of realism,” he added. “Thanks to the capabilities of the Stratasys Connex3 3D printer and respective materials, each house was 3D printed in an impressive 16-micron resolution for incredible accuracy.”

The advertisement has been running on UK television through the summer and will form part of a long-running multi-series campaign.